The Power and the Glory

Book 3 Chapter XII: Plague

"What do you think is wrong with my cousins?" Mirio asked instead.

Lian shrugged. "I haven't fully examined any of them, but my first diagnosis was..." He trailed off and looked mildly uncomfortable. "Well, I thought they had caught a disease from, shall we say, an intimate acquaintance."

"That was my thought too," Mirio said. "I'd believe it of Zi Xiao and Zi Guang[1]. But Zi Qin isn't old enough for that. He's only two thousand."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth he remembered two thousand was not actually that young and someone of that age was in fact an adult. Lian's face suggested he was thinking along the same lines.

"Their later symptoms made me change my mind," Lian continued. "If the disease spread more widely I'd say it was malaria. The spots are what confuses me. I've heard of malaria causing jaundice but I've never heard of it giving people spots."

A few drops of rain landed on the courtyard outside. They came more and more frequently until the rain was pouring down. Mirio watched it fall while he continued to puzzle over the strange disease.

"Could it be measles?" he asked.

"That was what the Crown Prince's doctor diagnosed. None of the treatments for measles worked." Lian was quiet for a minute. Then he said in a hushed voice, "I'm beginning to suspect a curse."

Mirio's first instinct was to laugh at that idea. He could understand someone cursing Zi Xiao. Maybe even Zi Guang or Zi Qing. But Zi Qin? What had he ever done to make anyone want to curse him? Most people outside the royal family didn't even know the Eighth Prince's name.

Then he remembered the sorry saga of Crown Prince Shao of Western Zhou, who cursed his father and brothers to get the throne. Instead he set off a civil war that ended with his own death and Western Zhou's destruction.

If there was a curse, the most likely suspect was one of the royal family. And it would end with far more deaths.

"I'll tell Uncle," Mirio said. "He'll know how to investigate this."

Lian pursed his lips. "That will just let the magician responsible know that they've been found out. What we need is someone skilled in tracing dark magic and breaking curses. I don't know anyone like that. Do you?"

Mirio thought for a while. There was only one person he knew who'd meddled enough in dark magic to recognise it quickly. Unfortunately she was more likely to accidentally make a curse worse than to break it. "I know someone who knows a lot about dark magic. We'll need someone else to break the curse."

Now how was he going to get Abihira's help when she was in Saoridhlém?

~~~~

Shizuki's new books kept him occupied for almost two hours. He curled up on a bench at the side of the pavement and started reading. He finished one book and got half-way through a second one before he got tired of this.

"What do you think's happening in there?" he asked, looking towards the palace.

Most of the servants, confused and annoyed, had lingered outside the gates for a while before deciding to take advantage of their unexpected time off work. The guards, who in Irímé's opinion had even less common sense than Abihira and made the reanimated mouse look intelligent, were hopelessly baffled at the situation and went to consult with the higher-ranked guards at the Silver Palace. None of them had come back yet. Perhaps they'd decided the best place to have the consultation was at their favourite bar. Now there were only Siarvin, Irímé and Shizuki still waiting.

They couldn't see anything happening in the palace grounds but they could hear some very alarming noises. Screaming, roaring, and now -- most frightening of all -- dead silence.